Received an email press release from www.wolfcrossing.org about a poll of New Mexico and Arizona residents. Average people were asked questions about the wolf re-introduction program and how it relates to ranchers and grazing lands. What was notable was that respondents supported both wolf reintroduction efforts and ranchers and their right to make a living.

This conclusion from the press release speaks volumes, not only about the wolf controversy, but it can be applied to just about any agricultural issue in play today:

The vast majority of those polled admitted little to no knowledge of the issue, therefore the uneducated public opinion on Mexican wolves and wolf reintroduction is positive. Despite mass media campaigns by wolf advocates who have been educating the public on wolf management that may or may not be scientifically based for years the public still supports livestock grazing on federally administered lands. Possibly even over wolf recovery even though they also support the idea of wolves on the same landscape. What would happen with a little pro active education on the real wolf story from a ranching perspective?

Emphasis is mine.

Even the pro-wolf groups (Re-Wildling Institute, Arizona Zoological Society, New Mexico Audubon Council, the Southwest Environmental Center) that commissioned the poll could, if they would, admit to “little or no knowledge of the issue.” They know they want wolves and lots of them.

The core of the problems we face stem from (IMHO):

1. Insulation of 99 percent of the public from any type of practical hands-on interaction with nature, farming, livestock or the actual processes that result in food on their table (or handed to them out the drive-through window, depending on their home life). Ironically it’s the efficiency and effectiveness of our capitalistic system in agricultural production, processing and packaging–the easy, inexpensive and constant availability of food–that has led to this insulation.
2. Constant 24/7 shaping of public opinion and conventional wisdom (by news media, movies, TV, etc., with very few exceptions) to a politically correct reality where killing deer for sport and food is evil, where livestock producers are villains who are denying animals their “rights,” and where the only good farmer is one who raises organic veggies and sells them locally. Yes, animals have “rights.” (I guess animals don’t respect one anothers’ rights, because they have a tendency to eat each other on a regular basis.)
3. Extremely poor education in public schools. Oh, the teachers can teach all right, but the curriculum seemingly must include mainly P.C. highpoints in history, “green” emphasis in life sciences, and presentation of nature and animal issues from the conventional wisdom point of view (see 2.).

Now, maybe the east and west coast apartment, condo and liberal enclave dwellers who promote and/or fund programs like wolf reintroduction would change their minds a bit if we insisted that wolves, bears and cougars were reintroduced on, say, Manhattan Island, in central Connecticut or in the Los Angeles basin.

Nah, probably not.

Sheep and goat (and deer and other game) losses due to predation continue to mount, and country long free of coyotes and other predators now hosts packs of hungry, indiscriminate killers. Meanwhile, urban and suburban residents happily go about their lives with harldly a thought about the desperate battle their country cousins must fight to continue to produce livestock and meat for their table.

The Catch-22 is that the environmental lobby and lawmakers back east care a bit more about the health of predator populations than they do about the plight of the rancher and farmer who must battle their ‘pets’ on a daily basis.

Wolf advocates and animal rights groups pass off the ranchers’ complaints, saying that predation claims a very small percentage of flocks and herds and the rancher should be compensated for kills proven to be done by protected species. They don’t mention predation by common killers like coyotes and hogs.

But the reality is that coyotes, wolves, feral hogs, cougars and bobcats–and even eagles–take a heavy toll on lamb and kid crops each year, causing a substantial economic loss for people trying to make a living raising small livestock. And ranchers are rarely, if ever, compensated. Cattle raisers are not immune either.

What can ranchers do? What can legislators do about the problem? What can envionmental groups and animal rights groups do about the ranchers’ plight?

This is a question I’m posing to legislators, individual ranchers and environmental groups. I hope they can provide some answers. I’ll let you know what they say.